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It's a great shame that you blocked PMs from me, as I mentioned earlier this is a topic that would be far better discussed privately. I'd be more than happy to speak to you on the phone, where you could tell me exactly what it is you think I posted that was "downright outrageous" about a company that no one I know of has ever traded with. I have a full copy of the "Ebuild incident" posts, and having read through them there wasn't a single one by me that was in any way outrageous, untrue or the cause of the problem that evening. There were revelations by others in that thread that were contentious, including one that was most probably unlawful under the rehabilitation of offenders act, but none of those posts were made by me. The thread wasn't started be me, either, FWIW, it was started by someone with an innocent wish to let people know about a trading relationship, nothing more. A simple Companies House check on the web will prove the one point I made on that thread that could have, but as it happened didn't, cause the problem. I will publicly apologise for my loss of temper in December, as I have done, more than once, to all the other founding members. I was out of order, and the cause was not something I'm going to go into detail about in public, suffice to say that I over-reacted to what I mistakenly thought was post censorship and moderation policy, a subject that had been sensitive in July last year, when I took a break from posting here to get on and sort out some stuff in my private life. To answer your question about post numbers that show here, the answer is that I had nothing to do with changing them, have never had the permissions here to do so, and it was a bit of a joke from when the forum first went live, as I recall. When the software here was being set up and tested, someone (not me) asked a question about the post counters and one of the Admins said they could be initially set to any number. Someone in the founding group (I honestly can't remember who - it was a discussion on the temporary private forum the 16 of us used before this site set up) suggested that we should all start off with the same post totals as we had on Ebuild, so that's what was done. If you look around, then you'll find that all the founding members here had their starting post totals set up like this, as far as I know. It was intended as a bit of a joke, a bit like another forum I'm on where every post in a certain section subtracts one from your post count that's shown, but if it causes offence to enough people I would guess the Admins here could sort it out somehow. I would rather we clear the air about this, and be completely open and honest, rather than have anyone with lingering doubts as anyone's motives, actions or whatever. FWIW, I'd prefer straight-talking and absolutely detest secrecy unless there is a very good reason for it, so your final comment to Ed about re-posting this is fine with me, and is what I would have done myself in your circumstances.

Afternooon All. I'm Nick - me and my fiance are planning a build somewhere in the East/South-East of the country (where exactly pretty much depends on finding an affordable plot) in order to create a huge double-height studio space as part of our home. We've just started the process of budgeting and putting together our design brief. We're both hugely excited about the possibilities and keen to learn more about the practical side before we get going in earnest. Have already found some great advice here from reading through old threads and I'm sure I'll be starting my own threads and pestering you all for input on a hundred different things before long so apologies in advance for that! I work in the glazing industry at a company that manufactures, designs & installs just about every type of glazing you can imagine (standard trade, all kinds of doors, curtain walling, minimal, structural, e.t.c.). Currently a director but I've done just about every job there is along the way. As a result I'd say I'm pretty well versed in most things a homebuilder might come up against glazing-wise and I'll be more than happy to give some technical or cost-engineering input to anyone who might need it if you send a message or point me towards your thread. Nice to meet you all.

Thanks Joe. As much as I'd love to help, unfortunately wooden windows are the one type we don't currently fabricate. It is a whole other manufacturing setup compared to Aluminium, uPVC, Steel, Bronze, e.t.c. and very hard to compete price-wise with the Eastern Europeans and their infinite forests. Would also depend on where you are located - we are based in London & Herts mostly servicing the lower half of the UK so may not be cost effective for someone building up North & vice-versa. With regard to discussing the company specifically on the forum, it's probably best I don't, forum rules aside, as I don't want everyone on here to think that I've just joined up to promote myself. Plus "you" self builders are the most nightmarish customers ever and as I'm Technical, your wacky schemes and sketches will only end up on my desk tomorrow morning If anyone does need help getting prices on a trade basis I'd guess the best thing to do would be to message me privately and as long as it's within the rules (??) I'll do my best to assist.

Oh god, not another one! Just kidding (if you've read around, you know the @Nickfromwales I'm talking about). Welcome to the forum and thanks for your kind offer to contribute. Always lots of questions about glass!

Seriously, she should talk to Jan. The doors and panels for all of the major kitchen suppliers are made by a couple of companies. Ditto the carcasses. Wickes kitchens just use the standard suppliers. Ditto the hinges, closers, drawer units, etc.; these are top notch suppliers such as Blum. I can't fault the quality here. The major decisions that you have to make are: Self fit or trade / subbie fitted. IMO, anyone who has very basic carpentry skills can fit a kitchen, though knowledge of techniques such as scribing a profile and a level of adeptness with a table saw or the like help a lot, as well as tools such as a decent chopsaw. Fitting can be ~30+% of the total cost (and often a lot more if the fitter is supplying you the kitchen at "trade" prices, but actually buying it a 30-40% discount). If you have disposable time (as we as pensioners have) then I would recommend that you seriously consider doing a lot of work yourself, especially if you can get a couple of days help from a friendly chippie for the more difficult bits. Flatpack or pre-assembled carcasses. In terms of the finished kitchen, IMO there is nothing to chose here. Flatpack is going to add a few days assembly time, but same test as above. If you do go pre-assembled then you have to get JiT delivery because storing assembled units is a total pain in the arse. I really don't think that anyone looking at our kitchen would think anything other than "quality product". I just can't see why paying a 50% mark-up to some fancy kitchen designer for nowt material makes any sense. OK, if both partners are working and doing 50+hrs a week then your decision might be a different sweet spot, but you two are in a very similar situation to us

you could always go old school, http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Water-Level and as they saw, water always find its own level. cheers simon

Bugger......confession time. This seemed like the cowards way out ( so naturally, I went with it ) Coupled with this In my defence, ahem, the templates went straight in the bin as the rise and going was not on there for my particular requirements. Also, for anyone considering one of these DIY / flat pack staircases, they're the dogs bollocks. Stairs for idiots made simple. A word of warning, with the winder box if you've not got a perfectly flat floor to come off you need to adjust all the stated dimensions accordingly. Also, the underside of each winder was marked for 650 700 750 800mm etc and I wanted 700mm so duly cut along the lines. Ended up with chuffing 625mm width !!! , work that out. Fwiw, the instructions were less than great so I binned those too. Do I still get a Blue Peter Staircase badge?

We have a 150% increase and gone from 1 to 2 storey. Trick is to look around at the local houses and find somewhere that already has 2 storey. West Berkshire allow a 50% uplift but others are a lot less. Again its a matter of looking at the local planning permissions on the council web site and seeing what gets passed. A lot depends if you are looking urban or countryside as rules differ

Just been out to the garage as I knew I had a NOS roll of this: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/single-sided-foam-tapes/2050899/?searchTerm=205-0899&relevancy-data=636F3D3126696E3D4931384E525353746F636B4E756D6265724D504E266C753D656E266D6D3D6D61746368616C6C26706D3D5E283F69292852537C5253207C52532D293F5C647B337D285C73293F5B5C732D2F255C2E2C5D285C73293F5C647B332C347D2426706F3D313426736E3D592673743D52535F53544F434B5F4E554D4245522677633D4E4F4E45267573743D3230352D30383939267374613D3230353038393926 Struggling to remember which site it was bought for as it's probably 20 years old. Still in the bag and you'd have been welcome to it to try but I can see the backing paper is separating from the foam which probably means the "sticky".....isn't! Tbh it would have cost more to post.

Hi @Nick we are on the Berkshire / Oxon and bungalow gobbled. Land around here and i mean any land goes for silly money. There is a agricultural field near us with no possibility of planning for a host of reasons being marketed for £500k . as a potential building plot. The number of people looking at it is unbelievable. We have spoken to a few of the people who have knocked on our door asking about the area and have had to correct some pretty horrendous lies told by the agent. Services in the road was one. There are none, however the agent corrected it with the person on the phone and said there are services but they are 2 miles down the road. All i would say do your own checks and do not take anything the agent says as gospel

Well, now I've got the story from the horse's mouth .... makes depressing reading, though.

Ian, I can but I promise you you'll find it very boring Ultimately the British profile companies always lag behind the German and Scandinavian countries by at least a few years. Their building regs are more stringent and their glazing manufacturers tend to be larger, working with more automation and producing greater volumes. British glazing companies are generally small, with a workforce that have learned from the previous generation without much formal training at all, and are therefore very resistant to change. Real changes only get pushed through by updates to the building regs but even they have to water down their requirements as the bulk of the UK fenestration industry just isn't capable of supplying and installing products to the standards of our counterparts on the mainland. I'm lucky to work at one of the few manufacturers in the country that do make attempts to innovate and push quality but it is an uphill struggle. The existing UK housing stock is so poor that putting triple glazed SI windows in will never pay dividends and we have so little land for new build that developers are only interested in building to the minimum spec acceptable. What attracts me (and I imagine a lot of people) to self-build is that it's a rare opportunity to build something properly with an eye on long-term cost effectiveness instead of just quick profit. Oh, and thanks for the welcome !

I think it's all about learning, I know, I love it. I love to solve a problem myself but the wonderful thing about this forum is we are all still in the same boat, or were. We all have strengths and we all gain from sharing that knowledge pool. By the time I finish my build I will be an expert ?.

Is it "over thinking" or just "thinking" time? Either way, having the time to do "thinking" has been a real benefit for me. I started out about 2 years ago and still have about 12 months before the development starts but Boy ! the things I have thought about as a result of reading magazines and being a member of this [& the other ] Forum has proved invaluable. Any thinking time shouldn't really be considered a waste. PW.

Excellent. Looks like the "clouds" are drifting away, paving the way for finer weather! Long may it continue I say. PW.

A couple of weeks or so ago I sat down and worked out my "over-thinking time", as a rough estimate. I reckon it was over a year of working time, just spent either finding out how to do things, or doing things, getting them wrong, and having to do them again. The problem is, even having done one self-build doesn't give you more than about 20% of the knowledge you need, just because every house and site will be different, and pose different challenges. One thing I can understand a bit better now is why the developers build boxes that are very similar, and will only build on clear and easy to access sites, with known ground condition. It means they don't have to deal with the wide range of issues that most self-builders have to deal with.

He is still trying ? Supposedly he is "waiting". I'm tempted to tell him there is a £30 charge for me to send him the funds so if he could send me that first I will release the funds.......

My drainage issue was for the sewerage, as there is no mains connection around here. So my services came in at about £11k, of which about 6 was a fairly fancy septic tank and treatment system. The access was about another 5 and I think still needs another thousand to bring into truly usable condition. So between them, all those will be not far off half my total budget

Hi and welcome to Buildhub Your plan is not dissimilar to mine- I'm building a 5x10m one bedroom house on land I already own, with the intention being to let it out. I've been fortunate enough to be able to do this in cash rather than needing to go to the bank. FYI my total project cost is going to be about £40k, hopefully just under that, which includes some very expensive work on drainage and access issues that hopefully you won't have. However I am doing absolutely everything myself so the cost is materials only. If you build to let, I don't think you will get your VAT back. I think you have to actually live in the property to do the VAT reclaim. So it might be best to go down that route, and not bother telling your bank that you plan to rent it out at a later date.

This seems to definitely be a phishing scam https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201909120 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200213150 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_201887920_to_201889310_2?nodeId=201889310 How would someone not know the price of their own item. As you have identified the email address is incorrect on the second email. Also Amazon would pass on your address details he doesn't need them. That isn't an Amazon payment at all, it is a direct payment to the guy's bank account. If you paid to that account you would not be protected by Amazon and they would not refund the money. Finally that would cost a fortune to post from outside the UK, it is a heavy bulky item plus the rails are 1.4m long. It is highly unlikely a seller outside the UK could offer a sensible price. I would make sure and cancel the order, it is not clear to me that he cannot claim the order has arrived and have Amazon bill you, although in that case it would be refunded. You should also contact Amazon and report the seller. PS At Christmas I checked my credit card statements, we (mainly my wife) had 290 transactions with Amazon last year. Does that make me an expert?

Jeremy, you've got a hell of a lot of supporters on this site who value what you've done for them and the community as a whole, and there's a couple of members that make the odd dig against you and others. It just seems a shame that you disconnect yourself from this large body of people that support and respect you because of a couple of jibes. I am glad I am not a moderator, because finding the right balance of freedom of speech and censorship, and the upset that some comments can cause is a difficult one to make Anyway, l listened to both the podcasts last night and found them informed and interesting. The site seems a resource worth looking at.

I could drive a car all the way round my house though I may need a 4wd for a start and possibly some bridge laying equipment to cross the various unfilled trenches.....

Have you considered converting the garage itself to liveable space?

Your type of house still has the No 1 advantage of a true detached, in that there is no party wall between living spaces, so you can have your music on as loud as you want without bothering the neighbour, and likewise you can't hear his tv or music. That was always the thing I hated most when I was joined to a neighbour, even little things like being able to hear when they slammed a door were just so "wrong" Of course there are detached, and "detached". My definition of properly detached is I can drive my car all the way round my house. Where I am now, We are sufficiently detached from the neighbours that I really could have a drum kit if I was so inclined (instead I flog a dead horse and one day I WILL be able to play something on a guitar)

Obviously we don't know the layout of your house, but unless you have lots of kids, an extra room downstairs may be preferable. As the population continues to age an ensuite bedroom downstairs which could be used as a gym or family room today, but could also suit ageing people in future might have more value, although it will be more expensive to build due to needing foundations. The other thing you might consider is a big open plan kitchen, again this may add more value and maybe free up say a dining room that is rarely used to be a more functional room. Depending on the direction your house faces, it may also allow you to make better use of the light and create a sheltered area in the garden. A lof of houses have way more bedrooms than public space nowadays, but is it really useful when not many people have more than 2 or 3 kids. I guess an agent may help to answer these questions and you can look at the sums of cost to build per square metre versus value added. Although tbh you could just look at Zoopla and find out prices in the area yourself as this is pretty much all estate agents do. If you do go along the lines of building above the garage, you have to consider that it has to look correct relative to the original house as it will be very visible. The risk is you build one thing on your side and then the neighbours build something similar but not exactly the same. It ends up looking very untidy. And as pointed out you end up with a semi which probably cuts a few percent off the value of your house.

Searching "girls with power drills" brings up some interesting images you may be able to draw from to increase the subscriber count. It may need to be a few degrees warmer though. EDIT: I was rather taken with Senorita Makita!

A buffer is basically a wet capacitor that acts as a sponge which absorbs energy and smooths out the delivery. Heating goes via that so, for eg, Ufh can draw lower amounts of heat than the heat source can provide ( lowest modulation / temp setting etc ) when the house is up to 'operating' temperature. It is a TS in essence, but we normally name the two differently when more than one application is required from said vessel. Eg when you add another coil for dhw production you'd typically then not refer to it as a buffer as it's not just a dumb vessel anymore.